The 2003 World Cup rugby match between Samoa and South Africa was most memorable for what happened after the match. Having battled each other for eighty minutes, fighting for their victory and the honour of their country, at the end, the two teams gathered in a circle. They swapped rugby tops with each other, surrendering the tokens of their national identity, put their arms around each other, and finally knelt down as one, praying a prayer of thanksgiving to God.
What the Christian rugby teams did at that moment was a deeply symbolic picture of our spiritual reality. Paul explained to the Ephesians that, through Jesus, Gentiles (non-Jews) who were once “far away” from God are now included in God’s family alongside Jews (Ephesians 2:13).
What Christ did on the cross was twofold. First, he brought two enemy groups together, “[he] has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (v. 14). Second, Christ united both groups together with God, “in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross” (v. 16). I picture it in a cross shape: unity on the horizontal with others; unity along the vertical axis with God.
No matter what divisions we may have with other Christians—nationality, race, theological differences, war, politics—we are united together with Christ, which is above everything else. Christ “himself is our peace” (v. 14).
By Tanya Marlow
REFLECT & PRAY
Thinking globally, nationally and locally, which Christians might you be feeling hostile towards? What difference does it make to remember our unity with God is communal, not just personal?
Dear Jesus, thank You that when You united us with God, You united us with each other. Please bring true peace amongst Christians today.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Paul’s reference to the “uncircumcised” is rooted in the derision Jewish people misguidedly directed at gentiles (Ephesians 2:11). Circumcision was a sign that set Jewish males apart for God (Genesis 17:1-14). But Paul wrote that “a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code” (Romans 2:29). As he wrote Ephesians, Paul was in prison, wrongly charged with bringing a non-Jew into the temple area ( Acts 21:27-29). God, however, was bringing Jew and gentile together in the body of Christ, the church (Ephesians 2:19-21).
Tim Gustafson
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